Wireless Internet Reviews

Boingo Wireless Wi-Fi Hotspot Service

Overview

Editor's Rating

Price

Speed

Support

Boingo Wireless was formed in 2001 by Sky Dayton, the founder of Internet service provider EarthLink. With Boingo’s software they are able to offer an easy use service that seamlessly integrates thousands of hotspots in to a one click system.

Boingo has many partnerships with hotspot operators around the world making roaming between Wi-Fi networks without extra charges possible.

Pros: Boingo users enjoy the benefits of easy to use software that quickly detects Boingo partners hotspots. Boingo gives you access to more than 100,000 hotspots around the world including over 500 airports and 19,000 hotels. Boingo also works on many of the leading providers Wi-Fi networks eliminating the need for accounts with different providers. This makes it a lot easier for the frequent traveler.

Cons: When you sign up for a global plan you will be limited to 3,000 minutes per month outside of North America.

Detailed Provider Information

Plans: Boingo offers 3 separate Wi-Fi plans to fit your needs. For $9.95 a month, Boingo Unlimited gives you unlimited Wi-Fi connections throughout North America. Any connections made outside North America will be subject to additional charges. With the Boingo Global plan, for $59 per month you get the full benefits of Boingo’s large worldwide network with no additional or hidden charges. However this plan is limited to 2,000 minutes outside North America. Finally there is Boingo AsYouGo. This gives you 24 hours of access to Boingo hotspots in North, South, and Central America and is billed at $7.95 per day. If you would like to use Boingo AsYouGo in the Asia Pacific region you will be billed at $9.95 per day, and in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for $19.95 per day.

Customer Service: You can reach Boingo’s customer service through a toll free number 24/7. We can also contact them by email.

Credit Check: No credit check is required.

Contract: Boingo is a monthly service that requires no further commitment.

Payment Options: Your credit or debit card will be billed automatically each month when you sign up for Boingo.

Bandwidth Restrictions: Boingo Global plans are restricted are restricted to 3000 minutes outside of the United States.

Activation Fee: The is no activation fee for this service.

Cancellation Fee: You pay monthly for Boingo’s services and it can be canceled at any time with no extra cost.

I subscribed to Boingo for an overseas trip to London and France in August, where I wanted to use my iPod Touch for email, Skype and general internet connection. It was absolutely useless!! Firstly you have to be in a hotspot to find other hotspots. Huh!! I was told about this by the Boingo Rep before I left, so I printed out pages of hotspots in the cities that I would be visiting. Many of these so-called hotspots didn’t exist and almost all of the others gave such a weak signal that they were unusable. (One hotspot in London was in an abandoned building!). I ended up finding hotels and a few coffee shops that had free wireless connection–oh, and of course ‘MacDo’ which has free wireless all over France.

Don’t waste your money on this useless program. I’d give it zero stars if I could.

if I could give them 0 stars, I’ll do it. The software is a trap and tries to connect you automaticlly as soon as a boingo network is available – and they charge you, even if you disconnect immediately. BEWARE

I subscribed to a “pay as you go” account ($7.75) with Boingo for my trip from Chicago to Europe. First I would give them 0 stars or negative stars if possible. It says a 24 hours of wireless internet at their hot spots, fair enough. I was able to access the internet with little issues, so I thought. After my trip I received 5 different charges. Two for $7.95 for each device (iPhone and Laptop) I used under my Boingo account. Then an extra 3 charges in Europe for $19.95 for each of the devices I used, total of $59.85+15.90=$75.75. FOR 1 DAY OF INTERNET! Nowhere in there terms did it say per device. I called and canceled my account and the costumer care lady told me it was very very confusing and gave $20 back. Woohooo!

JFK Airport August 29, 2011. Day after hurricane Irene… never seen a wi fi hotspot disconnect so much. Connection so slow I cannot even do a speedtest at http://www.speedtest.net. Hell I can’t even connect to google. Dunno how the hell I managed to luck out on this page after 20 minutes x_x. Anyways service is horrid. Disconnects often, speed is slow as hell and I am gonna put away my laptop before I throw something at the wall. Anyways just want to give this a thumbs down. Why pay for something that doesn’t work?

I picked Boingo’s top plan for a trip to England and France. In England, some of the BT hotspots were available (BTOpenzone) and some weren’t (BTFON), making the service mildly useful. In France, Boingo partners with smaller providers, and in three weeks, I got connected exactly once. It would have been infinitely more useful if they had partnered with the ubiquitous SFR hotspot system.

It would have also been very helpful if their iPad app worked when there was no connection, providing a simple list of hotspots.

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